ISLAMABAD: The cellular phone companies on Wednesday warned the government that all types of communication would be switched off if the president and prime minister did not take notice of the illegal action taken by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the telecom sector.

The companies also rejected the NAB’s demand to deposit the taxes, which they claimed had been exempted by the high-ups, sources said. The mobile operators, in a meeting on Wednesday, said that the NAB notice had made a mockery of the national representatives and the National Assembly’s Committee on IT and Telecom. The meeting said that the NAB was serving the vested interests instead of national interest by issuing the notice.

A participant of the meeting said that NAB was of the opinion that the operators were guilty of tax evasion irrespective of what the tax experts, PTA, FBR and the National Assembly or any other government organisations say. The mobile phone operators also warned that in such a situation the ultimate loser would be Pakistan if the president and the prime minister did not take notice and save the investment.

The mobile operators declared that NAB notices and option of ‘voluntary return’ and ‘plea bargain” are worst form of harassment of foreign companies to force them to pack up and stop all types of benefits to the country in the form of taxes and the services.